Tag Archives: Swiss

“My loneliness is killing meI must confess, I still believeWhen I’m not with you I lose my mindGive me a signHit me baby one more time” – …Baby One More Time performed by Britney Spears

At fifteen, I used the techniques Joe Elliott of Def Leppard taught me of taking songs I knew to draw upon for writing songs. For “…Baby One More Time” performed by Britney Spears I was inspired by Pat Benatar’s 1980 hit song “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”. Lyrically the song was inspired by Billy Squier’s “Lonely is the Night”, Shawn Cassidy’s ’78 cover of “Do You Believe in Magic”, and Roberta Flack’s 1979 cover of “Killing Me Softly”. There are references to Prince, the song “The Beautiful Ones, and the funk ensemble The Time.

The pseudonym Max Martin was devised with Max being one of the nicknames I gave Michael Hutchence of INXS for the Australian movie Mad Max. Later Hutch would name his side project Max Q.

The album “…Baby One More Time” would be released 16 years after written on my birthday, January 12, 1999.

“Cobain can you hear the Spears singin’ songs off station to station” – Californication performed by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Taking a que from lyrics in “…Baby One More Time” Prince released the 1987 album “Sign “☮” the Times” and then changed his name to the “Love Symbol” knowing Amy means beLOVEd.

I chose the 2009 album title “Circus” which includes the single “If You Seek Amy” for Def Leppard’s 1987 song “Animal” with the music video taking place at a circus as well as it being in the lyrics.

Sunday, May 15, 1983, my friends invited me to the Def Leppard concert. I didn’t know who they were, but told it was a rock band. Of course, this was cool on so many levels being a 15 year old girl and never having been to a rock concert before.

Monday, May 16, 1983, I returned home from school, dropped my school books on the dresser as the doorbell rang. A young goodlooking guy with bright blue eyes smiled as I opened the door. Without a word he pointed to the old van parked at the top of my drive. The side door swung open and my mouth dropped as the lead singer in full stage costume exited. If the phone had not started ringing, distracting me, I might have been more concerned about how and why this man knew where I lived.

NOTE: In 1983 Def Leppard was on tour in the US promoting their January released Pyromania album as the support act for Billy Squier before embarking on their own Rock Till You Drop Tour. They ended the tour with Billy Squier in April of ’83 in Seattle and Oregon. May 15, 1983 the Swiss band Krokus was their opening act. Little known fact, Kurt Cobain was on the road crew for this tour.

Amy Lee

Singer, songwriter, founder of the band Evanescence. I was discovered by Joe Elliott, lead singer of Def Leppard, and a yet unknown Kurt Cobain in May of '83.
I am not the lead singer Amy Lynn Hartzler.